Why I Work At A Credit Union
The most stressful call in this most stressful of weeks in this most stressful of fortnights in the economic world didn't have to do with members worried about the safety of their money or asking why we aren't insured with the FDIC (we are privately insured with a very selective insurance company that has never had an institution fail, and does not insure institutions with the risky mortgage-backed security investments or the albatross of sub-prime mortgages).
The most stressful call this week was almost surreal. It was almost Hollywoodesque compared to the turmoil in the stock markets, and the general tension and fear that are in the air. A man called from a bad neighborhood in Budapest, Hungary at 1 a.m. An ATM had captured his card, and he was stranded without access to funds, as his friend had lost HIS debit card in Munich. Their trip seemed to have fallen subject to a Murphy's Law of European hedonism.
Let me just repeat that, just for dramatic effect: he was calling from outside a bar in Budapest, Hungary, with no access to funds to get back to his hotel. At one in the morning.
I totally understand why people would be scared about how much insurance is offered for their deposit accounts, and it is a genuine concern; I also know how painful it can be to watch those numbers in your retirement stocks drop and drop and drop. I know why people would want to know what it means to say you are well capitalized with a certain percentage in reserve.
But nevertheless, that just doesn't seem to have the same stress cachet as someone stranded in Budapest, does it?
You see, this member had not called us before taking the trip to notify us that he would be using the card in an unusual place, such as Budapest. When the card security company noticed the card being used in Hungary when it was normally used in San Francisco, California, they kind of took notice, scratched their chins and said, "Hrm."
The member at 1 a.m. in Budapest, Hungary naturally was in no disposition to think along the lines of a fraud monitoring representative in the United States at 1 p.m. He was irate, saying it was all our fault that his card was blocked, that he had been in Japan and Australia and had never had to call us before. He said we had literally put his life in danger.
I'm not going to speculate here as to what he would have said if upon his return from Europe, he were to suddenly have random, extraneous charges pop up all over the former Soviet bloc and we weren't to question them.
To be fair, the ball was dropped. The fraud monitoring group had temporarily restricted his card, and he returned a call to confirm the charges; however, the card was not fully reactivated, nor was he informed to contact us. So when he made a couple attempts to withdraw funds from an ATM in Hungary, presumably after a late nightlife sojourn through the exotic world of Budapest, his card was vacuumed up like plankton being vacuumed through the baleen of a humpback whale.
The member said we needed to get him money, or get him a new card, or else he would shout our defamation from the mountain tops. Apparently he had traveled to Hungary with only one card, only one means of accessing funds, other than his friend, who had also apparently seen fit to take only one source of cash, which he had promptly lost in Munich. I couldn't possibly guess what they might have been doing in Munich to lose a debit card.
All that was kind of besides the point. The point was to fix the problem for the member.
So here's the kind of support and dedication my co-workers display: the manager of our payment systems department volunteered to locate a Western Union agent in Budapest, Hungary (did I mention that location yet?) and walk cash from the credit union to a Western Union agent in San Francisco to make sure the member could get funds by 7 a.m. that morning. He also helped me figure out how we could send a replacement card to the hotel where the member would be staying in Vienna, Austria.
As it turned out, the member was able to retrieve his card from the bank the next morning, and judging by the fact that we were able to get in touch with him to confirm receipt of the wire, he managed to avoid being mugged to death in Budapest.
But still, that was a rather remarkable situation, not one I've dealt with before, and not one I was likely to encounter working for a cell phone carrier, which was my previous job, the first step from an English Literature degree to doing something profitable in the real world.
And that is the sort of culture that makes me feel good about working for a credit union. It is a non-profit, geared to supporting the members; no crazy investments, no cross-selling of unnecessary add-ons and services.
It isn't where I want to be for the rest of my life, working with money. But it is suitable for now, and it has potential rewards beyond those of a monetary nature.
The most stressful call this week was almost surreal. It was almost Hollywoodesque compared to the turmoil in the stock markets, and the general tension and fear that are in the air. A man called from a bad neighborhood in Budapest, Hungary at 1 a.m. An ATM had captured his card, and he was stranded without access to funds, as his friend had lost HIS debit card in Munich. Their trip seemed to have fallen subject to a Murphy's Law of European hedonism.
Let me just repeat that, just for dramatic effect: he was calling from outside a bar in Budapest, Hungary, with no access to funds to get back to his hotel. At one in the morning.
I totally understand why people would be scared about how much insurance is offered for their deposit accounts, and it is a genuine concern; I also know how painful it can be to watch those numbers in your retirement stocks drop and drop and drop. I know why people would want to know what it means to say you are well capitalized with a certain percentage in reserve.
But nevertheless, that just doesn't seem to have the same stress cachet as someone stranded in Budapest, does it?
You see, this member had not called us before taking the trip to notify us that he would be using the card in an unusual place, such as Budapest. When the card security company noticed the card being used in Hungary when it was normally used in San Francisco, California, they kind of took notice, scratched their chins and said, "Hrm."
The member at 1 a.m. in Budapest, Hungary naturally was in no disposition to think along the lines of a fraud monitoring representative in the United States at 1 p.m. He was irate, saying it was all our fault that his card was blocked, that he had been in Japan and Australia and had never had to call us before. He said we had literally put his life in danger.
I'm not going to speculate here as to what he would have said if upon his return from Europe, he were to suddenly have random, extraneous charges pop up all over the former Soviet bloc and we weren't to question them.
To be fair, the ball was dropped. The fraud monitoring group had temporarily restricted his card, and he returned a call to confirm the charges; however, the card was not fully reactivated, nor was he informed to contact us. So when he made a couple attempts to withdraw funds from an ATM in Hungary, presumably after a late nightlife sojourn through the exotic world of Budapest, his card was vacuumed up like plankton being vacuumed through the baleen of a humpback whale.
The member said we needed to get him money, or get him a new card, or else he would shout our defamation from the mountain tops. Apparently he had traveled to Hungary with only one card, only one means of accessing funds, other than his friend, who had also apparently seen fit to take only one source of cash, which he had promptly lost in Munich. I couldn't possibly guess what they might have been doing in Munich to lose a debit card.
All that was kind of besides the point. The point was to fix the problem for the member.
So here's the kind of support and dedication my co-workers display: the manager of our payment systems department volunteered to locate a Western Union agent in Budapest, Hungary (did I mention that location yet?) and walk cash from the credit union to a Western Union agent in San Francisco to make sure the member could get funds by 7 a.m. that morning. He also helped me figure out how we could send a replacement card to the hotel where the member would be staying in Vienna, Austria.
As it turned out, the member was able to retrieve his card from the bank the next morning, and judging by the fact that we were able to get in touch with him to confirm receipt of the wire, he managed to avoid being mugged to death in Budapest.
But still, that was a rather remarkable situation, not one I've dealt with before, and not one I was likely to encounter working for a cell phone carrier, which was my previous job, the first step from an English Literature degree to doing something profitable in the real world.
And that is the sort of culture that makes me feel good about working for a credit union. It is a non-profit, geared to supporting the members; no crazy investments, no cross-selling of unnecessary add-ons and services.
It isn't where I want to be for the rest of my life, working with money. But it is suitable for now, and it has potential rewards beyond those of a monetary nature.
posted by Devin at 11:59 PM
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